Former Partner At Major International Law Firm Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Tax Fraud Violations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that THEODORE L. FREEDMAN, a former senior partner at a major international law firm (the “Law Firm”), pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to four counts of tax fraud for under-reporting his partnership income at the Law Firm by a total of approximately $2 million from 2001 to 2004. FREEDMAN pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “Theodore Freedman was an attorney at a high-powered and prestigious law firm who lied about his multi-million dollar compensation in order to avoid paying taxes, breaking the law and violating his professional code of conduct. Two things are certain: Freedman will now have to pay his taxes and more; and Freedman is now an admitted felon who has sacrificed his reputation, career, and potentially his liberty, for a few dollars. Others should not make the same bad calculation.”

According to the Indictment and statements made at today’s plea proceeding:

FREEDMAN was a senior partner in the New York office of a major international law firm, where he was a member of the Law Firm’s restructuring group. In that capacity, FREEDMAN received income that was calculated as a percentage of the Law Firm’s partnership income for a given year. The Law Firm issued FREEDMAN the IRS form that reports an individual partner’s share of income or loss from the partnership. According to the form, FREEDMAN's aggregate income for calendar years 2001 through 2004 was approximately $5,388,699.

FREEDMAN self-prepared, signed, and filed tax returns for calendar years 2001 through 2004. Rather than reporting the true and correct amount of partnership income he received from the Law Firm for the years in question, FREEDMAN falsely and fraudulently under-reported his income in the aggregate amount of approximately $2,097,211.

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FREEDMAN, 65, of Pine Plains, New York, faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison on each of the tax fraud counts, for a total maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. As part of his plea agreement, FREEDMAN is also required to pay more than $671,000 in restitution to the IRS and more than $169,000 in restitution to New York State. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Batts on September 17, 2013, at 10:30 a.m.

Mr. Bharara praised the work of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Cohen is in charge of the prosecution.